1 64 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



not seem any one's business to avenge a mere 

 Chinaman. Ammal was immensely interest- 

 ed in the tale, and kept recurring to it again 

 and again, taking two little sticks and making 

 the hunter act out the whole story. The 

 Kootenais were then only just beginning to 

 consider the Chinese as human. They knew 

 they must not kill white people, and they had 

 their own code of morality among themselves ; 

 but when the Chinese first appeared they evi- 

 dently thought that there could not be any 

 especial objection to killing them, if any 

 reason arose for doing so. I think the hunter 

 himself sympathized somewhat with this view. 



Ammal objected strongly to leaving the 

 neighborhood of the lake. He went the first 

 day's journey willingly enough, but after that 

 it was increasingly difficult to get him along, 

 and he gradually grew sulky. For some time 

 we could not find out the reason ; but finally 

 he gave us to understand that he was afraid 

 because up in the high mountains there were 

 " little bad Indians " who would kill him if 

 they caught him alone, especially at night. 

 At first we thought he was speaking of stray 

 warriors of the Blackfeet tribe ; but it turned 

 out that he was not thinking of human beings 

 at all, but of hobgoblins. 



Indeed the night sounds of these great 

 stretches of mountain woodland were very 

 weird and strange. Though I have often and 

 for long periods dwelt and hunted in the 

 wilderness, yet I never before so well under- 

 stood why the people who live in lonely forest 

 regions are prone to believe in elves, wood 

 spirits, and other beings of an unseen world. 



